Holidays

You may recall the Twas the Night Before Christmas Pop Up Book from last year that I made just for fun – to put my pop up skills to the test! I ended up giving it to my boss’s boss so her children could enjoy it. Maybe I’ll have to make one for my new niece and nephew this year 🙂

Well, thanks to my husband and the purchase of this fabulous product: The Silhouette Cameo, I have made the new and improved Christmas Pop Up Book version! My hands are happy that I’m finally putting the x-acto knife aside because the Cameo is my new best friend for paper-crafting

PROS:

You can custom cut and print any design – I mean ANY design that you want

You never have to buy a die cut cartridge or mess around with expansion packs

You can download designs from their online store and automatically start printing right from your computer

Online designs are endless and they are really cheap $0.50-0.90 per design.

Their customer support staff are super friendly and they respond really quickly through email

And again…you can CUSTOM create your own design and print out any font, style, shape, or image and it will cut it out perfectly and intricately.

CONS:

It’s a little tricky to set up…there are white rollers on the sides that you have to slide to adjust the settings for smaller paper designs. These things are so difficult to budge the first time you try it! It finally worked for me when I discovered from another blog that wearing rubber gloves will help you grip them enough to twist the pinchers out of the notches.

* A NOTE to FELLOW ETSY SELLERS:Make sure that if you use the Cameo, you purchase the license for commercial use and avoid the designs that say “for personal use only” if you intend to use a copy-righted design in a product. You can, of course, create your own designs in the Silhouette Studio software that comes with it so that your original work can be used in your own products, but just make sure you don’t incorporate a personal-use-only design in a commercial product!

I actually purchased the Fiskars Fuse (die cut & letterpress combo set) on Black Friday. It was marked down to $179.99 from $299.99, so it was worth the price to try it out. But before I even took it out of its packaging, I came across a Cameo demo video on YouTube and instantly became awestruck. I have since returned the Fiskars Fuse – as it doesn’t even compare to this machine. Most craft stores have this machine on sale right now $100 off – so don’t purchase it directly through Silhouette.com if you can help it.

When I first started using an x-acto knife, I hated it. But, after creating dozens of cards and little pop ups, I have realized that this crafting tool is invaluable. It allows for so many nice little intricate details that you just can’t achieve with using scissors. Maybe for some of you, using an x-acto knife for the first time is a piece of cake, but for me it took lots of practice to get really comfortable with it.

So, I saw a card in the store by Papyrus. You know, one of those super expensive ones that makes your jaw drop and makes you “ooh and ahh” over it for a few minutes. Yes? No? ….Maybe I’m the only weirdo who stalks out the card section of Target taking peeks at how some of the professionals, like Papyrus, put together a pop up card or make a lovely looking valentine.

Well, I saw a little scene cut out of a man and woman surrounded by a heart shape, with all little flowers surrounding it. I took a pic with the good old camera phone and used it as inspiration for my own little valentine scene that I used on the cover of this card.

The Papyrus card:

My Own, Not-as-Fancy or Cool-Looking Version:

So this definitely is not Papyrus-quality, whatsoever!!! But, while my x-acto knifing could be a little cleaner in some spots, I was happy that this came out decent enough to give to someone. I am hoping that my next x-acto knife project comes out a little crisper and that I’ll be able to handle a more complex one.

Ok and now for the POP-UP! I’m excited about this one.

Lift up the lid of the box and….surprise! There’s some candy!

Haha and yes, in case you were wondering, for the candy inside of the pop up box, I used real Hershey Kisses wrappers, rolled them into a little ball and glued them in the bottom of the box. What fun would all this Valentine-making be without some candy?

More to come soon, while I still have some red and pink cardstock, and while there are still a few days left until Valentine’s Day to make some more stuff!

In my previous post, Pop Up Card: Be My Valentine, I showcased a little airplane carrying hearts strung along behind it, all on top of some pop-up clouds with the message “Be My Valentine.” I figured I would do a tutorial this evening on how you can make this card on your own. Bear with me – I’m not a professional photographer and I don’t have a professional camera. The good old iPhone 4S will have to suffice. I hope that this helps you make a pop up valentine of your own! 🙂 More tutorials coming soon!

Original Card That I Will be Re-Creating:

1. Start with project board / poster board. I love this stuff for the backbone of all cards because it is really sturdy material that adds much needed support to hold up the weight from the cardstock pop ups. Cut a 12 x 12″ square in half and then into two 6 x 6″ squares.

2. Cut a piece of 12 x 12″ cardstock in half so you have a 12 x 6″ piece and score in the middle (DO NOT CUT into 6 x 6″ squares). This piece will the background of the inside card where the pop up will be.

3. Use pencil to draw the outline of your clouds on white cardstock. I free hand draw and prefer x-acto knifing to cut out just about everything – but you can feel free to use scissors. If you have trouble drawing, it’s a good idea to google search “cloud cartoon,” then print the image and lay it on top of your cardstock and cut along the outline of shape using an x-acto knife.

4. Now let’s create the base of your pop-up clouds – we are going to use a tabletop pop-up mechanism. Cut a long strip of cardstock 2 cm thick (make sure it’s around 10-12cm long so you have enough). Then score four 2 cm lines, each 2 cm apart from each other and then one 1 cm line as shown below. Repeat this again so you have 2 strips of paper with scored 2 cm lines.

5. Now fold the strips along the scored edges and glue the small 1 cm flap inwards so you have a 3 dimensional square. Allow both squares to dry.

6. Do the same thing again with a 2 cm thick strip of paper but this time, have four lines each 1 cm apart and a fifth line 1/2 cm long. Score accordingly on 2 strips of paper and fold along the scored edges so you now have 2 small rectangle boxes.

7. Glue the 2 cm squares together on one side – and then place them along the fold of the card so that the middle of boxes lines up right in the fold. Glue along the bottom square faces to secure in place.

8. Glue the 1 cm rectangles together on on side – and then place them wherever you want. I put them in an off-center location to the right. These little rectangles will hold up the cloud that is a step down from the clouds atop of the larger squares. Once you have the right spot for them, glue on the bottom sides and secure in place.

9. Add glue to the tops of the squares and rectangles you have now securely glued and add your clouds where you want them.

10. Now you can punch out the heart balloon by using a paper punch and some metallic paper.

11. Cut the balloon string by trimming off a thin piece of ribbon. Glue it where desired.

12. Now cut out a shape of the airplane and hearts. Again, I love using the x-acto knife for this because it’s quick and much easier than finagling with the scissors. Write the words you want on each heart using a sharpie.

13. Once you have your shapes cut out, lay them down where you want them on top of the clouds.

14. Cut out strips of ribbon long enough to reach from the tail of the plane and in between each heart. Once you have everything just where you want it, secure with glue.

The Re-Created Card from the Tutorial:

15. Create the cover by cutting another strip of paper 12 x 6″ and scoring in the middle to fold and adhere to the poster board. Cut out paper and design a cover however you want. I used paper punches for the hearts and hand wrote “Be Mine.”

Well, I did it in kind of a rush all while watching the King of Queens and Jeopardy this evening, but did the two come out looking pretty similar? You can do it yourself easily at home and add your own creative flair to make it your own. Happy crafting! Hope you find this tutorial useful!

As a donor recruiter for SeraCare Life Sciences, I am often searching for patients who have been diagnosed with autoimmune conditions like Celiac disease to donate plasma, blood, serum, or other specimens to help diagnostic research.

In one of my previous posts: Why Celiac Awareness is So Important, I shared a personal story about my college roommate who became diagnosed with Celiac in midst of being away from home and trying to find foods that would work. Since I’m loving all things that are Valentine’s Day related and I even made a new Pin Board on Pinterest called “Valentine’s Day Treasures,” I wanted to share this lovely recipe with you that I found from a fellow blogger Gluten Free Canteen – check them out at: http://glutenfreecanteen.com/ and find even more fantastic GF recipes.

Not only is it delicious and adorable, but it also is gluten free! So please share this recipe with anyone you know who has gluten sensitivity or Celiac (they are the not same thing), and also feel free to let them know about how they can help improve medical research by donating plasma at SeraCare Life Sciences.

In a large bowl weigh flours and sugar. Add baking soda, salt and whisk to combine. In a small microwave safe glass bowl melt butter and cool slightly. Add eggs, vanilla and warm water to butter and mix with a fork. Add butter egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a whisk or wooden spoon until the batter is smooth – about two minutes. Scoop into liners slightly less than 2/3 full. Spoon a dollop of jam into each cupcake (a dollop is about a half teaspoon) and swirl gently into batter with a toothpick just until it looks interesting. Too much swirling will get you a red top – so less is more in this case. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Lower oven to 325 and bake for about 10-12 minutes more or just until a toothpick comes out without crumbs. Cool for a few minutes and then remove the cupcakes to a rack and cool completely before frosting. Can be made a day ahead.

Raspberry Buttercream

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and shortening. Sift in the powdered sugar just until combined – on low unless you like your kitchen dusted with sugar!. Add in the vanilla and seedless raspberry jam by the half teaspoon until the buttercream is pale pink or the shade of pink you want. Whip on medium high for about 4-5 minutes until very light and fluffy (the time will vary depending on the speed of your mixer). Pipe or spoon on to cupcakes.

Decorate

Add sprinkles (your choice) right after frosting cupcake. And make the kid in your life very happy.

I made this valentine using cardboard that came in a clothing shipment box for an order I made online a couple months ago. I like to save boxes and pieces of cardboard for potential future projects like this one. So when thinking of the next valentine to make last night, I thought it would be great to use up what I had in recycled cardboard for the card. The polka dot paper is 100% recycled eco-friendly paper and the birds are made from x acto knifing on a strip of the cardboard. The only element of this card that was not made using recycled paper was the paper punched heart on the front and the inside. But, they were made using my left over scraps from other valentine’s projects so I feel like I was being less wasteful! The design comes from Martha Stewart’s love birds template which I fell in love with! I decided to make my own version on this recycled cardboard. 🙂 Hope you like this one!

Valentine card # 3 of the season is a waterfall style card with hidden messages that are unveiled as little flaps pop up and a tab is pulled down. This mechanism was also used in the Happy Birthday Waterfall Card post. I will post a tutorial on this soon!

This valentine card reveals the message “I Love You” in the waterfall pop up. The left hand side words “Be mine” were cut out using an x-acto knife after carefully hand drawing the words with pencil on cardstock. The heart for the “i” in “mine” was cut out using a paper punch by Fiskars. Paper is canvas textured cardstock by Stampin’ Up. Happy crafting!